Book Review: The Coffinmaker's Graveyard by Stuart MacBride Happy New Book Day !

I have waited sooooo long for my Ash Henderson and Dr Alice MacDonald fix .... I'm quite giddy to share my thoughts on The Coffinmaker's  Graveyard but it's here and I am excited to share my review with you. But first .... here's the blurb

The Coffinmaker's Graveyard Blurb

Available here

A village on the edge…As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the North Sea. But the 
crumbling headland has revealed what he’s got buried in his garden: human remains.

A house full of secrets…
With the storm still raging, it’s too dangerous to retrieve the bodies and waves are devouring the evidence. Which means no one knows how many people Smith’s already killed and how many more he’ll kill if he can’t be found and stopped.

An investigator with nothing to lose…
The media are baying for blood, the top brass are after a scapegoat, and ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way.

‘Stuart MacBride’s deft plotting and whipcrack dialogue, along with a strong sense of place, make The Coffinmaker’s Garden a must read. If you like your serial killers with lashings of dark humour, this is for you’ Peter Robinson, no. 1 bestselling author of the DCI Banks series

'The Coffinmaker's Garden is brilliantly creepy, with the most cleverly conceived crime scene I've ever read. His legions of fans will love this – it's an unmistakable Stuart MacBride cocktail of dark violence and even darker humour’ Jane Casey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Cutting Place

My Thoughts

I settled down with this during the second Covid lockdown and was chuffed to bits to be thrust right into the brilliant Henderson/MacDonald dynamics. It was so lovely to reconnect with them seven long years after their last outing together and a lots happened in the interim. They are now consultants (joined at the hip or as near as dammit) employed by the police to help out on difficult cases. 

Ash Henderson may be damaged, but his loyalty and protectiveness of Alice is beautifully written and often brought me near to tears. As for Henry - their wee Scottie dug - well there's nothing cuter than a wee Scottie dug now is there?

Whilst in the middle of a hunt for a child abducter who has already killed two young boys and has captured another from the rough estate nearby, Ash and Alice are asked to do a favour for another team tasked with investigating the discovery of a graveyard in Clachmara which is rapidly falling into the sea. His task is to speak to an ex convict with violent tendencies who lives in the neighbouring house to the graveyard and Helen McNeil is no shrinking violet. 

The upshot is that whilst Alice continues to investigate the murdered children, Ash gets re-assigned to identify the tortured bodies who are disappearing into the sea with only a few polaroid photos from up to fifty years ago to help him. 

As usual, MacBride has created a stellar cast of subsidiary characters with all the quirks and varied personalities I've come to expect from this author. However, as well as new and delightful characters, MacBride reintroduces some of the characters from the previous Ash Henderson Book, A Song for the Dying. With enviable skill, McBride, in few words, makes each character unique and vibrantly present in the reader's mind.

The Coffinmaker's Graveyard is dark and creepy and deliciously out there. MacBride takes us just that one step over the line with the depravity of his killers and , despite seeing a soft side of Henderson and a less troubled man, Ash is still, without a doubt a man on the edge. Henderson has few boundaries left and he'd not afraid to push them if it gets the job done.

The Coffinmaker's Graveyard is a flamboyant foray into the darkest of minds and only MacBride could take to such horrific investigations and bring each to a satisfactory conclusion. I've read all MacBride's books and this one definitely explores the darkest of dark places and isn't afraid to explore the lengths people, with only a few things left to hold on to, will go. 

This is most definitely not a cosy crime read. It is deep and dark and ugly ... but oh sooooo satisfying. I loved it!

About the author

Stuart MacBride was born in Dumbarton near Glasgow but grew up in Aberdeen. He is the number one bestelling author of several novels featuring DS Logan McRae. He has been shortlisted for the Theakstons's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award twice. Stuart won the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library, awarded for a body of work, and was named Best Breakthrough Author at the 2008 ITV Crime Thriller Awards.